CHAPTER XI. 

 SOME MINOR CRUSTACEANS. 



BESIDES the crabs and shrimps already enumerated there 

 are to be found upon our shores a great variety of smaller 

 species of Crustacea, representing widely differing tribes and 

 orders. We cannot fill a phial with water from a rock-pool 

 without getting a number of specimens of the crystal-cased 

 water-fleas (Entomostracd), of which we are probably already 

 acquainted through several well-known fresh-water forms. We 

 cannot pull up a tuft of fine weed from the same pool but wo 

 shall find on putting it into a tumbler of water that it harbours 

 a multitude of Crustaceans much larger than the water-fleas ; 

 and so when we place in our aquarium a rough bit of rock, 

 because it is the resting-place of a tube- worm, an acorn shell, 

 or a patch of polyzoa, we shall find it is also occupied by 

 little shrimp-like, or woodlouse-like creatures. There is every 

 probability, too, that we shall get with these the minute larval 

 forms of crabs and lobsters. It is a delight to introduce them 

 in this way, and to be constantly making the acquaintance of 

 unsuspected inmates of an aquarium that perhaps only holds 

 a couple of quarts of water. 



Of course, there is no difficulty in collecting these smaller 

 species of set purpose, any more than there is in looking for 

 anemones and sponges ; but whether the shore naturalist 

 seeks them or not, he is bound to get a large variety. 



The majority of these will be species of the two important 

 sub-orders, Isopoda and Amphipoda, and one of the most 

 conspicuous, because largest, of them is the Sea-slater (Ligia 

 oceanicd)) represented in our next illustration. It will be found 



